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War Opponent Questions Bush

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg October 3, 2007 7:14 pmOctober 3, 2007 7:14 pm

WEST HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Coincidence?

President Bush’s public appearances are usually polite affairs, held before friendly audiences. But when Mr. Bush appeared at a town-hall style meeting before a Chamber of Commerce group here in the Pennsylvania Dutch country today, the first question was hardly a softball.

It came from Gerry Beane, a 59-year-old real estate agent and opponent of the war in Iraq, who began by telling Mr. Bush he really appreciated that the president did not “govern by opinion polls.’’ Still, Mr. Beane went on, “We have reached a point in our political process where almost three quarters of American citizens’’ oppose the war. And so, he said, “I was hoping that I could say to you, man to man, and taxpayer to president, we need to cut back the amount of money we spend on Iraq. We need to bring our soldiers home.’’

The crowd was hushed – seemingly shocked – as a woman next to Mr. Beane quietly took off her jacket to reveal a pink shirt that said, “George Bush, your war killed my friend’s son.’’ Mr. Bush appeared not to notice, and went on to defend his policies, saying that he does intend to bring 5,700 troops home by Christmas, and that, “If I didn’t think the mission was necessary for our security, I wouldn’t have our troops there.’’

The president’s lengthy defense of the war brought hearty applause from the crowd. But it also raised a few eyebrows. Mr. Beane, as it turned out, had been quoted in the local newspaper before Mr. Bush arrived. He was the first person in line to get tickets to the town hall event, and he told his interviewer he hoped to ask Mr. Bush about the war. Is it possible the White House hand-picked him, to give Mr. Bush a platform to make his case?

The White House says it does not screen its questioners. “Absolutely not, must be a coincidence,’’ said Tony Fratto, the deputy press secretary. “We definitely do not do that.’’

So how was it, that out of the 400 people who attended the event, the president called on Mr. Beane first? Mr. Beane says he nodded his head vigorously as the president spoke, hoping Mr. Bush would think he was calling on someone who agreed with him. Conspiracy or coincidence? Coincidence, he says.

Is it possible that Bush was so ashamed of the fact that he has never appeared before an open, uncontrolled audience of his own citizens that he took a page out of the book of that other great proponent of freedom of speech, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and opted to do so this time around?

Oh, I guess not, it looks like Mr. Beane just managed to fool the GOP goons that control every appearance by Bush so he doesn’t have to confront reality. Good going Mr. Beane! If only we had more patriots like you at every function this incompetent and arrogant president attends – maybe he’d get the message!

“The White House says it does not screen its questioners”?????????????? What the hell ever!! And the traveling road show circus on social security reform never existed? The staged FOX events never occurred? Remember the NY Republican Convention? Do you recall the traveling campaign crusaders? What about the touring town halls? It appears that after so many lies or so many months, it goes away as the voters can’t remember anyways.

I agree with Jake @7:31. Bush knows he has had us in a trick bag ever since the Dems chickened out on not funding the Iraq war. Why not continue the same old mantra (“We’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here.”)? No one has come up with a rejoinder to this simplistic, fear-based rhetoric, so why not put it to use? It helps the Republican party and it’s constituents, and tht’s all the neocons care about.

In the last presidential campaign Bush came to town in front of a ticket only affair. Cheney made a speech to a hand picked VFW crowd. Kerry held a rally on the river, with 17,000 people there, and another at the ball park with no tickets required.

Well Bush and Cheney have been leading the entire country about by the nose for years without caring what Americans think so I fail to understand how one man asking a question which was ignored by the speaker and not answered makes any difference.

isn’t it a poor reflection on all the journalists present that they continually fail to ask Bush theses simple questions?

My question is why are none of the Media outlets asking the same question again and again and again and again?

Or are the news media and journalists owned and controlled by the powers that support and enable the Bush-Cheney Cabal.

In the post-Iraq war era GWB has hardly spoken to ‘non -controlled’ audience as such it’s not possible to beleive that Mr Beane was a surprise questioner.GWB prefers to speak to military/cadet audience where the even the applauses are robotic and none can ask a dissent natured question.

Ha! So Bush is out of touch with reality, he’s never faced criticism…I think Mr. Beane just showed you all up. Bush meets someone who disagrees with his policies, and he responds to them, clearly and intelligently.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it…

Is it really that evil to want to keep Iraq’s oil? Why do we shy away from wanting to be an empire? I say build the bases over there but get out of Baghdad. But cover the basics at home too, like checking the container ships coming into our ports.

My problem is the extreme dishonesty and waste of this administration. I don’t mind expanding our power, but I want it done openly and efficently, and with an eye to bettering the world rather than the rich. But Bush has been sloppy, and the forces driving this war are greedy for themselves.

“Is it really that evil to want to keep Iraq’s oil?”
-Yes. It has something to do with the apostrophe in the penultimate word of your sentence.

“Why do we shy away from wanting to be an empire? ”
-Because every other one has collapsed. Let’s stick to just being a country.

“…and with an eye to bettering the world”
-Yes, we’ve done such a splendid job of it here, in our brief history with Native Americans, Jim Crow laws, Katrina, and virtually every child left behind. Why not leave the betterment of other people to other people? *Really* want to help? Send money, not guns.

I noticed most of you liberals think that Bush has a plan to keep the haters away so he does not have to answer questions that are against his policies. Here is a clue for you liberals; all presidents have the same playbook of keeping the hostiles away.

I also noticed the reporter did not ask if Bush satisfied the question, he had asked. My guess now that the war in Iraq is going much better the liberal hate machine is becoming more silent.

Your President Bush is my hero. He does what he has to do to protect the world from the freaks that wish to control it. I particularly enjoy how he patronizes your gutless liberals. This man ,whoever he was, had the right to express his opinion…and your President Bush had the right to put him in his place.

14.
October 4th,
2007
12:52 am
Is it really that evil to want to keep Iraq’s oil? Why do we shy away from wanting to be an empire? I say build the bases over there but get out of Baghdad. But cover the basics at home too, like checking the container ships coming into our ports.
My problem is the extreme dishonesty and waste of this administration. I don’t mind expanding our power, but I want it done openly and efficently, and with an eye to bettering the world rather than the rich. But Bush has been sloppy, and the forces driving this war are greedy for themselves.
— Posted by pip

Where to begin? “Is it really evil to want to keep Iraq’s oil?” Are you serious…really? Of course, it is wrong, illegal, against both international and moral law to steal another country’s resources. Have you read up on what happens to empires? Do you fully understand what an empire is? Think of the movie, INDEPENDENCE DAY… a gross exaggeration in some parts, but surely an empire sucks the lilfe out of its prey. Are you familiar with the history of our own country and how our Founding Fathers admonished Americans to be wary of foreign entanglements?

I absolutely agree with you on the lack of safety inspections that leave the US open and vunerable to terrorist infiltration and attack. Perhaps Bush and Cheney don’t have cronies in the Harbor Security Biz…so there’s no real incentive to fund something sensible and necessary like this. I’m surprised that Halliburtion hasn’t started a subsidiary that “has been the international leader in border and harbor security since 2003.”

I do mind expanding US power at the expense of the countries we benevolently invade, crush, destroy, and seek to make over in our own image. It’s sickening, it’s immoral and it must end. Meanwhile, the well-connected Bushies continue to rake in billions of dollars of OUR TAX-PAYER FUNDS for their own purposes. Look at Blackwater, Inc. That outfit should be shut down, and the hundreds of millions of OUR tax money should be diverted away from that bunch and back into our military, where it belongs. Our own military men and women are quite capable of performing these tasks, and can do so with order, clarity, and accountability. Let’s given these miltary folks the benefits and the pay that is now being thrown at these private security thugs.

I lived in that part of Pennsylvania from 1967 to 1984, and know that during the Vietnam War support for the policies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon among the general population, not the Amish, lasted longer there than in metropolitan areas, particularly university communities.
As for planting a questioner with a specific purpose in mind, that is neither honesty nor, ultimately, good strategy. I have no way of knowing if Mr.Beane was planted.

A clear and refreshing point by #14. “My problem is the extreme dishonesty and waste of this administration. I don’t mind expanding our power, but I want it done openly and efficiently, with an eye to bettering the world rather than the rich.”
And some of the candidates could use some candor, too.

Considering all of the secrecy in and about the white house, I do not see how it could be possible for them NOT to have ever so carefully screened and orchestrated the town hall meeting so as to give Mr. Bush the opportunity to say that he would like to be bringing home 5700 troops by Christmas. Another opportunity for him to say “Mission Accomplished”! Is anybody fooled?

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